How to Set Your Author Website Foundation by Guest BookWorks and from Rachel Thompson: “The independent author sphere is saturated with bad design and marketing—from unintentionally hilarious book covers to websites that look like refugees from the wreckage of Geocities—and you don’t want to add to it. But it goes much deeper than that. Design isn’t just how your website looks, but what it does (to very loosely paraphrase Steve Jobs), and you have to do more than just have something out there. It needs to be as remarkable as your book.”

Book Covers that Sell Your Book

Are you looking for a new book cover designer or premade cover? This will make your search easier! by Diana Urban: “Most authors and book marketers know that covers are important — and that it can be worth spending money for a professionally designed cover. After all, a book’s cover design has a proven impact on sales. But where can you go for help with your book cover design? We’re always on the lookout for useful resources, and we compiled this list for anyone seeking cover design help. We tried to include a variety of designers and premade cover options so you can find the best match for your genre and budget. While we haven’t vetted these specific resources ourselves, we hope they’re good places to start and make your search for cover design help less overwhelming.”

Find a Publicist

Choosing a Publicist: Ruling Out and Ruling In by Guest Barbara Linn Probst and from Jane Friedman’s blog: “Nowadays, many writers elect to hire their own publicists. That’s especially true for those who publish with small, independent, or nontraditional presses, since that may be the only way for them to secure media attention. It’s also true, however, for writers who take the traditional route. Unless you’re a major name, your publisher will have limited time and resources to devote to your book. If you want more exposure, you’ll have to make it happen yourself.”

I think this Indie Author Weekly Update is the longest one I’ve ever compiled. Rachel Thompson’s NaNoProNo is in full swing and I like to bring the best of those posts to my weekly roundup. Anne R. Allen wrote a dynamite piece of the author persona. I start with the most important post: the one on MailChimp by David Gaughran. Read it. Enjoy all the posts in this week’s edition.

MailChimp

Time To Ditch Mailchimp? by David Gaughran: “Mailchimp attracted extreme criticism this week when it became clear how its new marketing services would impact its core email offering — particularly in terms of pricing — leading many long-time users to start explore alternatives (including this one).”

How to Make Your Book Marketing Plan a Success by guest Maureen Joyce Connolly and from Rachel Thompson: The very core of my approach was to learn as much about launching a book as quickly as possible, to compile a strategy and to execute it with support if I needed, but for me to be the driver of my plan. I also understood instinctively, that I would need to identify my personal strengths and use them to my advantage since I had no social media presence – nada, zip – as my business had flourished via referrals.

This Is How to Use Harder Working Links to Sell More Books by Guest Jessie Lakes and from Rachel Thompson: “Let me quickly introduce you to what we call “intelligent links,” the hardest working links on the internet. These aren’t the links you copy out of your browser window or a shortened bit.ly links, but rather supercharged links that can help you sell more books and unlock a new stream of revenue. And the best part is that you are already doing the hard and time-consuming work, swapping in the use of “intelligent links” doesn’t take much extra time at all.

This Is How to Sell Your Book in 20 Seconds by Guest Sharon Goldinger and from Rachel Thompson: “Picture this: You’re in an elevator, your book cupped in your hand, the title clearly visible to the other person in the elevator. While riding from floor 1 to floor 19, she asks, “What is From Fat to Fit about? You respond: “You’ll be inspired by the amazing Community Meltdown, which motivated 1,000 people to have fun while losing 8,000 pounds in 8 weeks, and my personal story as I went from fat to fit and lost 62 pounds.”When the elevator lands at her stop, she says, “Sounds great. I’ve got to get a copy.”

Book Readings

How to Plan a Book Reading That Delights Your Audience from Jane Friedman and by James Navé: “The audience is on your side. They love writing just as you do; that’s why they’re there. These wonderful people have taken time out of their lives, probably traveled some distance and spent some money, just to hear you read. They’ve come to witness your imagination at work. They’ve come to be moved, entertained, motivated, validated, informed, provoked, stimulated and inspired. In short, they’re receptive.”

Sure, there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of blog posts published every day explaining how to accomplish some aspect of social media.

But guess what?

It’s mostly been said and done previously.

Sure, some things are new, such as Facebook’s new focus on Groups and Facebook Messenger chatbots.

But a lot of what you read about social media marketing for authors has been said before.

Really.

Okay, I just explained the first secret to you. Let’s review secrets two, three, and four now.

Secret Two: You Don’t Have to Be Everywhere

I’ve mentioned this on my blog before, but it bears repeating.

For some reason, when we publish our first book, we seem to believe that we need to be everywhere.

You don’t. Why? Because your reading demographic isn’t everywhere.

Where do you think Young Adult readers hang out? Mostly Snap, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Where do you think romance readers spend their time online? Mostly Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

You can have a bio on LinkedIn, but most authors don’t need to spend a lot of time there – especially not romance and YA readers.

What if three social media platforms are too many for you to handle? Pick one and learn it until you can rock it. Then take on a second. Then, if you want to take on a third on but stop at that point. No one needs to be on more social media platforms than three.

Well, that’s my opinion, and you can probably find people to disagree, but that’s what I think.

It’s simply too much of a hassle to devote a lot of time to more than two or three social media platforms. And if you want to hire someone to handle the platforms for you, fine, but you’ll be paying a lot of money.

So, streamline your social media and put energy into writing and blogging.

Secret Three: Subscribe to One Great Social Media Marketing Blog

If you subscribe to one blog that covers social media marketing for authors (hint: mine!), then you don’t have to read any others.

Why spend hours reading a massive list of social media blogs? It doesn’t make sense.

Instead, you should spend your time writing your next book.

Secret Four: Secret Media Is Actually Simple to Use

Yes, it really is.

Let’s start with Facebook. Signing up is super easy, and Facebook has simplified the creation of Author Pages.

Basically, all you need are the basics.

Instagram may be the easiest of them all. Create quotes, snap pictures of where you write or hike and upload them to Instagram with a caption and hashtags.

On Twitter, set up your username and password, use Canva to create a header image, and you’re on your way. Know that tweets can now be up to 280 characters.

My point is this: learn the basics of the social media networks you need to be on and then over time, add more skills.

All you need to start are the basics.

So, you think that’s easy for me to say? Well, it’s not. In fact, it’s harder for me because I’m expected to be able to master every innovation as it’s introduced.

How do I keep up? I read blog posts, and I take a lot of courses – courses that you can sign up for as well.

So don’t let anyone try to convince you that social media marketing for authors has a dreadful learning curve. If I can do it, so can you.

I hope you enjoy today’s Indie Author Weekly Update. The seven (yes seven!) posts I reference below offer you the kind of strategies you need to sell more books.

Note that this month Rachel Thompson, social media expert and founder of NaNoProMo (to help authors market the books they wrote during NaNoWriMo) is featuring a lot of ideas on how to brand yourself and sell more weeks. Be sure to follow her on twitter (@BadRedheadMedia and @RachelintheOC) to keep up on the posts she’s adding to her website this month.

Enjoy the posts below!

Readers

Reader Targeting Influences Everything by David Gaughran: “Reader Targeting is yet another concept we have to juggle. It’s no wonder many writers take to the drink, or otherwise lose the run of themselves. Or can be a little… kooky. We have to wrestle with a number of contradictory notions all the time — it’s enough to make anyone batty.”

How to Bring Value to Your Readers from Jane Friedman’s blog and by Paulette Perhach: “What’s the difference between these two writers: David Sedaris, who people pay fifty dollars to see read out loud for an hour, and the open-mic writer, who is allowed five minutes to read before the timer interrupts him to get off stage? In business speak, the difference is value. Specifically, the power to create value through art.

Branding

Three Reasons Why Branding Shouldn’t Make You Lose Your Mind from Bad Redhead Media and by C. Streetlights: “Imagine you have always had a dream to, I don’t know… let’s just say for argument’s sake you always wanted to become a writer. Unfortunately, Reality can be a real jerk and you couldn’t be a writer or a ballerina so you ended up being a bus driver. However, in our imaginary scenario, you are able to maintain a blog about your adventures and have a large following. When confronted about you do in your spare time, you somehow manage to stammer, “I’m sort of a writer.”

Author Blogs

4 Ways You Can Make Time To Blog Right Now by Rachel Thompson: “Time, writers say, is the biggest challenge when it comes to blogging. We are writing books. We are marketing books. We are thinking about writing and marketing books. We are parents, spouses or significant others, single parents, workers bees, pet puke cleaner-uppers, grocery-shoppers, housekeepers, laundry-do-ers, mental illness sufferers/survivors, advocates, and the beat goes on.”

Book Marketing

How Recommending Books Can Grow an Author’s Audience
from BookBub Partners and by Catherine McKenzie: “As writers, we’re in a unique position to both spread the word about books we love and to benefit from the subsequent engagement this gives us with readers. Recommending books I’ve loved has brought me new readers and has allowed me to engage in the enthusiastic online book community.”

How to Make Time for Book Promotion by Pauline Wiles and from Rachel Thompson: “As authors today, we’re compelled to juggle more tasks and responsibilities than ever before. Given the colossal effort you’ve invested in writing and publishing your book, you know you’d be crazy not to dedicate some energy to promoting it. But with all that’s going on in your life, how do you make the time for this?”

Here’s another edition of the Indie Author Weekly Update. Think social media has gone to the dogs? Well, not yet. Take a look at this week’s posts and you’ll find new ways to market your books.

By the way, my dog Paisley (pictured to the right) now has her own Instagram account. I’d love it if you’d follow her on her very own Instagram account. You can also follow mehere. See you on the ‘Gram!

Book Marketing Tips

Let’s Get Meta by David Gaughran: “When should you cut names from your mailing list? Why should you do it at all? How to you actually go through the process of doing it? Are there any risks involved? We’ll cover all that today using this list as an example. Told you it was meta!”

Book Promotion: Do This, Not That – May 2019 by Amy Collins: “When a store turns us away when we offer them a book for sale, that is not usually a solid “no.” It is an answer to our first question. Perhaps we are not asking the right question. We were asking them to give us money in exchange for our books before we have proven that our books will make them money in return.”

Author Websites

Step By Step Tutorial: How To Build Your Own Author Website In 30 Minutes by Joanna Penn: “I currently write under three different author names, including one new pseudonym that I demonstrate in these tutorials. I’ve built a multi-six-figure business off the back of my author websites, so I know how important your site and email list are. Whether you’re just starting out with your first book, or you want to improve your existing author platform, this tutorial should help you along the way.”

Twitter

Twitter for Authors: How to Connect with Readers and Writers from BookBub Partners and by Julia Hansen: “Social media sites like Twitter are great for helping writers build and interact with a loyal, enthusiastic following. When used effectively, these platforms can help you expand your reach and boost engagement. Before jumping into the fray, it’s important to know how to effectively use Twitter to promote your books, connect with readers, and build a community (hint: it’s not all about marketing). So here are some of our top tips for making the most of Twitter!”

Book Marketing Tips

14 Fantastic Marketing Tips for Debut Authors by Diana Urban: “Marketing a book as a debut author is vastly different from marketing as a seasoned author with a large backlist. For one, you likely don’t have an existing fan base — and you also lack the experience to know what tactics work best to reach the right audience. So if you’re a debut author, what promotional strategies should you try when preparing for your first book launch?”

Of Note

#NaNoProMo Starts Next Week: Rachel Thompson started NaNoProMo (National Novel Promotion Month) to help authors promote the books they wrote during NaNoWriMo. Learn more about this month-long event and the specials you can win. (I’m offering a social media audit worth $297 for just $99!)

This week’s Indie Author update is chock-full of wonderful tips and strategies to help you with your book sales. As always, David Gaughran wrote a terrific post. There are also blog posts on Twitter, Instagram, content marketing, search engine optimization, and lastly, BookBub ads. Whew! Enjoy the posts.

Author Platforms

How To Build An Author Platform by David Gaughran: “What is an author platform? Which elements should it contain? And is any of this stuff more important than just writing another book? Perhaps not. But certain aspects of an author platform are important tools for reaching readers and, especially, for holding on to them.”

Twitter

Saying No to Twitter: What Authors Need to Know from Jane Friedman’s blog and by Daniel Berkowitz: “Tell me if this is a situation you’ve been in before: Your agent just sold your book to a publisher, and now you want to do everything you can to ensure your book’s success. The publisher tells you to get a website and to get on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You have a Facebook profile, and you’re not opposed to creating a separate author page, and you really enjoy Instagram—but you don’t like Twitter.”

Search Engine Optimization

SEO for Authors and Other Search Ranking “Secrets” by Jenny Hansen: “SEO for authors … It’s a catchphrase that makes all my writing pals shudder. As one of our gals at WITS said, “I know how to spell it, but that’s about all.” SEO doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, some of the best techniques are the easiest for writers, because they involve writing.”

BookBub Ads

8 Ways to Target Readers Using BookBub Ads: “With BookBub Ads, authors and publishers can promote any book to BookBub’s millions of power readers at any time. While this is a valuable audience of book buyers to begin with, BookBub Ads’ targeting options let advertisers refine their audience even further.”

This week’s Indie Author Weekly Update has a whopping six suggestions for you to read. Learn to write a memoir that sells, set up automated emails (it’s easy!), and ponder your purpose. I hope you like all of them!

Memoirs that Sell

How to Write a Memoir: 14 Tips for Writing Memoir That Sells by Anne R. Allen: “It is true that memoirs are problematic. They’re devilishly difficult for a new writer to do well, but they’re what newbies usually write. The urge to put our own life story on paper is the most common reason people start writing. Adult education programs and senior centers everywhere offer courses in “writing your own life.” And there’s the old adage that says everybody has a book in them—their own life story.”

Marketing

5 Ways to Market Your Audiobook Without Ads from Jane Friedman’s Blog: “Some authors and publishers seem to believe that by the simple act of making an audiobook available for purchase, there will be numerous purchases. Yet, as with all types of books, yours is merely one of many thousands published each year. You must make listeners aware that your product exists. Here are 5 different ways to do that without advertising.”

Beta Readers

Where to find beta readers for your book by Sandra Beckwith: “Last week, I had a conversation with a client about what he referred to as “peer reviewers” for his next book. That gave me pause, because peer reviewers are usually used with academic or scientific works, and his is neither. I asked if he meant “beta readers.” While peer reviewers read for factual accuracy, beta readers aren’t limited to “peers” and can be from your target audience. “Beta readers” was, in fact, the term he meant to use.”

Find Your Purpose

This is How To Find Our Purpose by Rachel Thompson: “Many survivors (and people in general) tie our jobs with our purpose. One does not have to equal the other, though it can. This is a Western way of thinking – we equate what we do for a living with our purpose in life. However, the two can be entirely different.”

Get Those Book Reviews

Ways to Get Book Reviews: The Power of Recommendation by Penny Sansevieri: “Personal recommendations account for 95% of all book sales. That’s a powerful statement, and it really speaks to the fact that people like what other people like. So, when authors ask me if book reviews are still a great way to sell a book, I always say ‘yes’ because great book reviews really tap into the power of the personal recommendation. Which brings us to the inevitable—how to get book reviews?”

Instagram

21 Ways to Get More Instagram Followers Wishpond: “Having a strong Instagram presence is a powerful advantage. And one way to get that advantage is by growing your Instagram following. There are currently over 8 million Instagram Business profiles and over a hundred million active Instagram users posting every day. Without the right strategy, it can almost feel like your Instagram post is just another needle in the haystack. But don’t get discouraged. In this article, I’ll be showing you 21 effortless ways to get more Instagram followers.”